The thirty-fifth anniversary in March 2025 was particularly notable because of Kelly’s recent retirement and the pending publication of his book. Coverage that year incorporated his account of the investigation’s conclusions in a way that earlier anniversaries could not—Kelly was still active in the investigation during most of those earlier years, constrained in what he could publicly say.
The thirty-sixth anniversary, in March 2026, came as Kelly’s book was being published. The book provided the most detailed public account of the FBI’s investigative work that has ever been available.
Whether any of this attention will produce a tip that leads to recovery is unknown. The mechanism by which hidden things become visible is not always dramatic. A storage unit auction, a probate proceeding, a house being cleared after someone’s death—these ordinary events have produced recoveries of stolen art in other cases. The same could happen with the Gardner works.
The anniversary coverage, the documentary projects, the podcast episodes, the book—all of them serve to ensure that when the ordinary event happens, the person who encounters an unfamiliar painting in an unexpected place has the information necessary to recognize it.
—
## If the Works Are Found
The recovery of any of the Gardner works would be one of the most significant events in the history of American art institutions. The practical questions about what happens next are worth considering.
The works would be returned to the Gardner Museum. Under the terms of the museum’s arrangement and the governing vision of Isabella Gardner’s will, they belong there—in the Dutch Room, in the Short Gallery, in the Blue Room where *Chez Tortoni* hung. The frames have been waiting.